Some great software I use

Friday, February 09, 2007 4:44:44 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

I was recently on the search for a new firewall after having so many people complain about it (and having a few issues myself). I asked a forum that was very happy to criticise ZoneAlarms what they recommended to use as people were quick to flame and not explain.

Sadly, despite making very clear I wasn't interested in flaming, the majority of the responses I got back were still flames about ZoneAlarms but there were a couple of nice people who responded with useful suggestions. I thought as there seems to be very little advice about suitable firewall replacements to ZoneAlarms I would post what I've got installed as well as a couple of other useful programs in the process.

Firstly let me explain why I feel the comment "If you've got a hardware firewall you don't need a software firewall" is a ridiculous statement. My reasoning dates back to Greek times -notably the Trojan war when seeking entrance to Troy, Odysseus had a large wooden horse (the sacred animal of Poseidon) made as a gift. As I'm sure everyone is aware, the horse was hollow and filled with a load of soldiers which popped out after the Trojans were done celebrating the end of the siege and let the rest of the army in through the front gates to slaughter all the drunk Trojans. Anyway, back to my point, yes you may have a hardware firewall that will stop nasty attackers getting in but what happens if you unwittingly invite one in? The likelihood is it'll invite a load more in after it which will end up crippling your computer. So for that reason I have a software firewall to monitor the traffic in and out on my machine.

The software

The first thing to note here is that all this software (at time of posting) is free -what can I say? I'm a cheapskate ;) The links are to the file download page so please let me know if they've broken since posting.

Blogging: Although in the past I've tended to use the built in WYSIWYG editor of dasBlog I've recently been trying out Windows Live Writer (windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com) I've got a few issues with it -like the fact it refuses to close tags -or even leave your code alone, but on the whole it's a really useful utility that massively reduces the amount of time taken to post.

Keeping track of files on CDs/DVDs:Catalog Now 2.0 -not bad for a CodeProject project, I was going to get a CD Stakka from Imation but this has saved me around £80, really easy and simple to use. I would name your archives with a number and then the reference, then write this number on the CD itself, that way you'll quickly be able to find it.

Identifying on screen colours: In FireFox I have a little colour picker but in Windows I use ColorPix which is a free screen colour grabber from Color Schemer

The Behemoth has arrived

Thursday, February 08, 2007 6:14:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Quite why I’m posting about my new mug I don’t know but hey why not –it’s all good for a laugh!

Basically Stacey got me a new mug for Christmas and it’s put my last ones (largest “old” mug was ½ liter) to shame so much that I just had to write about it! This mug is awesome, I can make a cup of tea in the morning before I go into the office and it’ll keep me going until at least mid-morning.

WebDD -I was there, were you?

Tuesday, February 06, 2007 12:00:26 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

What an awesome event, I was originally in two minds about going to the latest conference installment from Phil Winstanley, Dave Sussman (and all the other dedicated people involved with the other DDD events) but boy am I glad I went.

This time I decided to take it to the next level and rather than driving down and back on the day I’d drive down the night before with Stacey and stay over in a local hotel. This worked really well, not only did it mean I was awake for all of the seminars but I could get some work down the next day too ;)

Anyhow, back to the day, for once I had the foresight to choose the seminars I was going to attend before I arrived and decided not to attend all of Scott Guthrie’s talks mainly because of the following I knew he’d have but also because of the great alternatives available so here’s my breakdown of who I went to see and what I thought of their talk:

GlenN Jones (not Glen Jones as was listed in the schedule ;)) presented a very interesting talk on microformats, it’s not quite what I first thought it was (for some reason I thought it was some form of HTML applets but lets not go there!). Microformats are certainly something I’m going to look into in the future but as Julian Voelcker has pointed out quite how practical they are to use in a CMS situation I’m not sure.

I think from an SEO point of view and also from an information sharing POV they’re very interesting and I’ll certainly be integrating them into various sites for testing purposes sooner rather than later (in fact if you check out my about me page they’ll be there with the new update coming soon … now I just need to re-work my tag output* using IISMods' URLRewrite).

I think in principle microformats are a good idea for something like a blog or a semi-static site where the developer (or someone with knowledge of microformats) has control over the content but how you could role them out in a client managed site is a little more complicated and something that will need some more thought -do you offer buttons to insert the code markup for them? Can you offer nested content easily etc.

The other thing about them I’m not too sure about is (miss)use of the abbr tag -again that was only something I picked up in the talk so may have missed the point, I’ll need to look into it further.

Either way it was an interesting insight into a new concept that I’m going to support if I can :). Check out the main microformats site at: www.microformats.org

Glenn Jones is also the developer behind the back network site that was used to link all the delegates together, it’s an interesting concept that once again promotes a social network on the internet which is all the rage at the moment but also allows you to interact with other delegates before the event -this is something I’d have done had I had more time before the event!

Making web sites accessible is something I’ve been interested in pretty much since I got involved with ASP.Net 1.1 and I get endlessly tired of hearing fellow ASP.Net developers complain that you can’t make web sites accessible using the ASP.Net platform -balls can’t you, ok it’s not something that comes out of the box and at times is a little awkward but a lot of it is just common sense and consideration.

Bruce Lawson’s talk was a breath of fresh air, it was great to see someone having the courage that I’m yet to muster (well, more the time but hey) to convince my fellow developers to make their sites accessible.

Why the hell shouldn’t your site be accessible to all? It’s not all about money, in my mind it’s just about being fair to others -following (as ever) Google’s moto of don’t be evil. I liked Bruce’s method of presentation as it was far more personal than the usual “you should care because it’s the law” or “you should care because you’re missing out on a ton of money”, when asking the question “who cares?” -using his words not mine- he said “rather than quoting facts and figures at you trying to convince you, -my mate Theresa does”. I think this in itself was a different method of engaging the audience and I certainly felt it worked.

The talk wasn’t particularly in depth (which baring in mind the audience I expected) but I felt it was enough to plant the seed of interest with those that weren’t otherwise that aware or interested about accessibility. I hope that they’ll now actively encourage fellow developers to take action -not necessarily by redeveloping their past sites as many clients can’t afford this, but by giving some consideration to accessibility in future designs -i.e. DON’T use buttons for menu systems!

I can’t hand on heart say all our sites are overly accessible but I’m learning and I feel each new site we’re involved in is that little bit more accessible. Bruce did share a very useful site called “Blind Webbers” where you can get in contact with screen reader users -I’ll certainly be checking that out with the new design for The Site Doctor, for others interested Bruce sent me the link: http://www.webaim.org/discussion/mail_message.php?id=9019. I’m thinking I’ll see what they think of Miss Mays adult store -could be a good introduction!!

One thing I do need to think about is the order of elements on the page, i.e. at present this blog layout has the menu appearing before the content -mainly because that was the quickest way I could get the layout sorted, but I think I need to re-order it so the menu comes last -that said I do have a “Skip to content” link at the top -how effective it is I’ll let you know. Another thing I also want to pass by Bruce is image replacement techniques as I’ve tried a few now and I’d be interested to see how they perform on screen readers and the like.

Quick and dirty Usability tests - one week, no budget, and no usability facility (Zhivko Dimitrov)

Again, interested in making my sites as user friendly as possible I thought that this would be an interesting talk but it wasn’t quite as it was portrayed -instead he went into how they perform remote usability tests with a budget. None the less it was a fairly interesting talk.

Zhivko is from Telerik and clearly has a fair amount of experience in usability testing, I was hoping he’d have some good ideas on how to offer usability testing on no budget but sadly he didn’t. There were a couple of interesting points raised however that I don’t think I would have thought of -firstly the re-use of testers, if you use a tester more than twice within a year they’ll start to know what you want them to say rather than what’s there. The other point raised was if you’re using remote testing, you loose the non-vocal indicators of frustration such as a furrowed brow or someone scratching their head.

Zhivko’s opening demo however was a recording of a guy trying to find a grid component on their competitors site, despite the fact they spent a fair amount of time laughing at the guy in the background I thought this was a great example of a poorly designed site and how important it is to highlight your site’s calls-to-action which is something that I’ll have to remember while optimizing our newest SEO client for online poker The Rivercard -one of the issues we have already highlighted is that many of their download links are below the fold of the screen which reduces the chance the user will click the link.

As with Zhivko’s talk, this was another talk that wasn’t quite as it was portrayed by the title, but I was pleasantly surprised by the content. Brandon Schauer’s talk was more about business modeling and how analyzing the current business method can be improved with a little thinking (and design) -ok that’s obvious ;) but his methods were nice.

I found the talk incredibly interesting -especially following my mini-series on business start-up advice, I thought this was a really well timed and interesting talk. Some of the ideas he offered were simple and to the point so you can apply them to any business, the issue I have with it though is whether I can apply it to any of my clients -I’d love to take the time to go through Miss Mays adult store and help them improve some of their business processes but they don’t have the money to invest and sadly neither do I.

I do however think that I can apply some of the concepts he was talking about to an example business which in turn could then be a starting point to discuss business improvement with clients. This however will take a little time and I think Stacey will need to be involved as this is what she’s primarily trained in. Although I love developing and I don’t think I’ll ever get away from it (certainly not in the foreseeable future anyways) I am getting more and more interested in business analysis, it’s not something that I’ve really got any experience in yet (having only been in business for a few years) but perhaps one day it’s an alternative career path I can choose…

Either way, Brandon’s talk was well worth seeing and if he’s ever at a future conference I attend I’ll certainly make the effort to see him talk.

For the final talk I decided to watch Scott Guthrie’s talk about WPF/E and boy what a talk it was! I almost didn’t get in as we were hearded in like cows (which was most amusing I have to be honest), the woman stopped me right on the entrance -I think much to Julian Voelcker’s delight as he’d managed to get a seat. Luckily though the women on the doors (yes women -not burly bouncers!) took pity on us poor, desperate geeks in admiration of some Yank they didn’t know and let us line the sides of the auditorium -which meant I ended up getting a front row (floor) seat.

The talk was one of those “look at what’s coming” type talks but with a twist, it was something that I can see being of real use -and more than that gave you the urge to try it out. WPF/E looks like a really exciting new technology -even if Julian does think it’s just the same as Flash. As I don’t particularly like flash I think this will be a nice introduction to our development arsenal. That and the possibilities are far greater than those offered by Flash -especially where data interaction is involved.

Scott Guthrie did show an impressive demo of WPF/E which can be seen at www.vista.si -it’s one of those “wow, I can’t believe I’m seeing what I’m seeing” moments, the site is basically a replica (working replica) of Windows Vista -but on the web. It even works with Firefox!

The interesting point that I picked up on is their method of rolling out the WPF/E platform to users, rather than offering the usual Windows Update installer, it sounds as though it’s all going to be done in the same way the flash play is -a small (1.1MB IIRC) file will be downloaded the first time you visit a site that requires WPF/E and that’s it!

I do have concerns over the accessibility of WPF/E but Scott Guthrie did assure us that later versions of WPF/E will be made more accessible. At the end of the day however, I guess it’s just the same situation as entirely flash sites -those that want to offer them, have to offer an accessible alternative (and as Bruce Lawson pointed out -NO, IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE UGLY!).

It was also nice to see Scott Guthrie talk as there are so many blog posts around the net talking about how they saw him, now I can say that I’ve seen him talk -somewhat sad but hey!

In summary

I always take a conference as a whole -there’s always going to be at least one talk which isn’t quite what you expected, if you can come away with at least one nugget of information that you didn’t have before -or- with a little of that zest for doing what you do back again it was well worth attending. In this case I got a real buzz out of most of the talks and have plenty of things to try out -now I just need to find the time!

And if all that wasn’t enough to get your juices going and wanting to do some more development, I (I think for the first time ever) won something in the raffle -I was in the queue hoping for the book on accessibility by Bruce Lawson but actually won a years subscription to ComponentArt’s Web.UI component set -I’m well chuffed at that, now I just need to find somewhere to use them!! Oh, I shouldn't forget the free copy of Microsoft Expression Web we were given, and the T-Shirts and, and... :D

I did get to meet up with a few people off the MsWebDev list but sadly not all -Mickey, I’ll have to say hi next time. The one thing that did amaze me was how long the lunch was, I don’t recall any of the DDD events being that long.

Finances (VAT, Accountants etc)

Sunday, February 04, 2007 8:58:09 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Billing

This is something that we’re in the process of re-working as we have a variety of billing periods ranging from ad-hoc to annual. This is fine as long as you have some method of determining which method a client requires.

Stacey has devised a very good suggestion that should also avoid any complications with large annual invoices:

£0 - £300: Invoice Annually

£300 - £600: Invoice Bi-Annually

£600+: Invoice Monthly (£50+pm)

There are a few reasons I like this method:

You won’t upset your client by sending them a £500 invoice they’d forgotten about

It keeps you in contact with larger payers more frequently

For the larger invoices it reduces the impact to you if the client chooses not to pay

£50pm+ is sufficient an amount to justify the 10 minutes admin a month

Payment periods are important, make sure every invoice has a payment period on it but don’t expect your clients to adhere to it. You’ll learn what each particular client is like at paying as you build your client base but many will wait until the last payment date to pay, if at all until you start to bug them (see: Processes and Procedures about having a dedicated admin day). Having a shorter payment period (or “Payment Required on Receipt”) will allow you to start chasing the client sooner.

Again it depends on your particular line of business but I would suggest you have the following information on it at the minimum:

If the invoice isn't on your letterhead paper then make sure your address is shown

Their address –and if it’s a corporate client include a contact’s name to ensure it lands on the correct desk

An invoice reference (an auto-number should suffice but you could prefix this if you like)

If you have it, the purchase order number

The date your invoice was issued

The payment due date

A summary of the items included on the invoice including:

An SKU (if relevant) i.e. 1HOURDEV for 1 hour of development work

A narrative (description) of the item

Unit cost of the item

Quantity of the item

Line total

Total amounts –if you’re VAT registered, include the amount with VAT, without VAT and the VAT itself

Your payment terms (i.e. all invoices must be paid within 14 days)

You payment details –sounds crazy but I see so many invoices without bank details or even information on who to make the cheque out to anywhere. It’s so simple to place this information on the bottom of the invoice, why make it harder than it needs to be for your client to pay you? If it’s not there, they need to make contact with you (if you’re around), you then need to look up that information, they then… ok you get the idea ;)

It’s obviously optional and up to you but I think it’s nice touch to thank the client for their business on or with i.e. on a complimentary slip the invoice (see: Client and Supplier Relations) –yes, I love my clients!

Accounting

Buy an ACCA textbook and read it. You need to know about the tax system and how it works. ACCA is the best. Then go and find a good accountant.

Jos Vernon

I’m not an accountant myself but my (far) better half Stacey is a chartered management accountant with CIMA (an alternative to ACCA) and I ran this past her as I had concerns with it. Her response was rather than obtaining (expensive) textbooks that you’re unlikely to understand (I’ve seen them, I can understand them but they’re somewhat boring) the best thing you can do is read through the documentation from the Inland Revenue –mainly because as soon as that textbook is printed it’s out of date which can (obviously) have massive re-processions for you!

There are many different accounting bodies and they all have their own specialities. It’s important to understand that a Chartered Management Accountant can’t necessarily help you with your tax return, in the same way a taxation specialist can’t necessarily help you with profitability analysis (whereas a Management Accountant can). One amusing ditty about Chartered Accountants (and I expect this covers other industries with multiple bodies) is that they all feel their chartering body is the most superior whereas they’re probably all much the same.

It’s important to remember that it’s the same as your industry, it’s great that the client knows what you’re talking about but it’s highly unlikely they know as much as you.

Get a good accountant. You're probably on a budget but there are affordable ones out there. A good choice is someone who has recently started but has lots of experience (so it's in their interest to build a good relationship and they don't charge the earth). A good accountant can help you out with the paperwork related to your business and free up some of your time to get the clients in (a bad one can do the complete opposite).

...or a part-time booker who knows their onions. Cheaper, more loyal and usually more effective.

Mike A

Again from Stacey, any accountant worth their money will save you more than they cost you, as with many things in business –recommendation is key, ask around friends and family or fellow businesses to find a reputable accountant and if at all possible get a few references.

There are many accounting bodies out there (CIMA, ACCA, CIPFA to mention a few) but make sure when choosing your accountant that they are chartered in some way or another as this means they’re more likely to be up-to-date with their knowledge and to some extent being regulated. When you’re setting out, you should be able to have all your books done for under £500pa comfortably.

Don't get paranoid about tax. Yes it's a big issue. However ultimately the best way to increase your income is to make more money.

Jos Vernon

VAT

The Inland Revenue are surprisingly helpful. The VAT people are superficially scary but actually a really good bunch. If you're nice to them they will help you. And unlike the banks they actually know what they're talking about.

Jos Vernon

Should you go VAT registered or not?

When setting up The Site Doctor, I chose not to go VAT registered on the basis that the majority of our start-up contracts would be non-VAT registered companies. As it turns out I was wrong as every man and his dog these days is VAT registered but more than that I feel that many businesses perceive non-VAT reg'd companies more fly-by-night.

Most people (especially in business) expect companies to be VAT registered so it hasn't affected potential contracts and we have the added advantage that we can claim money back ;). Sadly, the only people that suffer are non-registered people and at the end of the day they're unlikely to have the money to justify you not going VAT registered.

One thing to note if you’re setting up as a team is there is a limit on the turnover of the company at which point you are forced to be registered, this year (06/07) the limit was around £65k (refer to the Inland Revenue’s website [http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/]) so if there’s 3 of you in the team and you hope to take home £20kpa you’ll need to go registered straight away.

You don’t need to be over the threshold to be registered as you can voluntarily register before you reach this threshold. There are a couple of benefits to voluntary registration that come to mind:

The perception of your company’s earnings is increased. When not registered, your clients will know you have a turnover lower than the current threshold. This is not a good start when approaching clients with a proposal near over this threshold.

By charging input tax to your clients, you can claim some money back, virtually ever purchase you make has VAT added to it which you can offset on your charges.

One flipside however is the additional administration work.

Once VAT registered

Set up extra bank (savings) accounts to hold VAT and Corporation Tax if registered as a ltd company. You MUST religiously put the VAT element of every payment straight into the VAT account. At the end of each quarter you have a) the money to pay the VAT bill and b) usually some left over due to the VAT on your expenses.

DO the same (if you can) for corporation tax. It's harder to put 20% away each time so I usually do a quick calc of income vs expense and put 20% of the net away each month. My corp tax is due end of this month and the money has been sitting there accumulating (with interest) all year to pay for it.

Sean Ronan

Yes, a great tip and this is so easy to do if you've got access to internet banking through your bank, it also means you have a nice nest egg at the end of each year as Sean said -I did the same with my personal tax before going VAT registered.

In the case of LloydsTSB they allow you to manage both accounts within the single login which makes it even easier, if you want to be really prepared, just halve each invoice, put one half in your savings account to cover VAT and Taxes etc and the other half is what you take home.

Having a little money totting up on the side in this way allows you to have either: A nice little Christmas bonus (by this time you should know what your tax bill is going to be and you’ll have a reasonable idea of your Quarter 3 VAT return) -or- A tidy sum to invest into the business someway :)

Also the VAT on expenses in the period running up to VAT registration can be claimed back, it may be 6 months - my first VAT bill was a credit, due to the expenses on hardware, software and start up costs.

Sean Ronan

We recently registered for VAT and the official stance on claiming VAT back was:

3 years on goods (hardware etc) as long as on the day of incorporation you still have the item, receipt and you've not sold it on.

6 months of services (hosting, domains etc) as long as you have the paperwork.

I was told that the Inland Revenue think nothing of start-ups and businesses in the IT sector to have a very low (or credit) first return (and if you're going registered from day one then the first few returns) due to the cost of setting up.

It really is easy. It seems VAT accounting is often quoted here as a reason for getting an accountant involved - it just isn't.

Andy Henderson

I couldn’t agree more, when you’re small, set aside a day a week to input your expenses into a database and as long as you’ve got your invoice lists to hand totalling up your income isn’t hard, the form’s dead simple (see photo) so there’s no need to worry about that. I’ve even uploaded the MDB that we’re currently using as a stand-in while our accounting system is finalised.

While on the subject, in-house system development –choose it carefully, weigh up the costs of doing it yourself against buying an off-the-shelf solution. As a developer it’s all to easy to say “I’ll do it myself and save a few quid” –it’s not always the case, I’m only having ours custom built so I can tie it in with other areas of the business.

Banking

Think about how money gets from your company to you. I'll suggest something which should work (based on my experiences a couple of years ago). Run your company taking up to about 35K each year in income as dividends (minimizes your NI contributions and keeps you in the lower rate tax bands). Anything in excess of that stays in the company. You can either keep the money there as a source of income. Or if you make it big you can close the company after three years (you can always open another one) and take the income as a capital gain. Because you've kept the company for three years you qualify for 75% taper relief on the gain. So you don't pay tax on the first 8k or so and you only pay 10% on the remainder. The money in the company has had 20% tax paid on it so the effective rate of tax is 30%. It's not as good as the 35k pa - 20% rate but it's a darn site better than the top rate 40% you might have to pay if you just gave it all to yourself.

Jos Vernon

Whatever you do, make sure you have a separate business account, it portrays a more professional image for your company (payments to your company will be addressed to your company name rather than your personal name).

Make gross payments into your private pension plan from the company to reduce your corporation tax

Keeping up a pension is important, talk to your accountant about the options available to you. It’s also worth considering alternative pensions such as property investment. I know a few business owners that own the property the business operates within.

Don't be seduced by the banks. They pretend to know lots about small business. However ultimately they do this in order to get your confidence and hopefully extract money from you. I've never had any useful advice from anyone in a bank. Personal accounts offer a much better rate of interest than business ones so don't be afraid to keep business savings in a personal savings account, though you must be sure to talk this through with your accountant to ensure that the division between your money and that of your business is sufficiently clear for the Inland Revenue not to get all paranoid.

Jos Vernon

That’s a fine tip, using a personal account for your company savings can indeed earn you an extra 3-4%pa which soon adds up. Make sure however it’s a separate personal account that you don’t tap into and don’t top-up with personal funds. That way you’ll make life a whole lot easier when calculating the business’ income from interest.

Abbey do a good business account with no charges (if you stay within a quota which should be fine for you guys) http://www.anbusiness.com/.

LloydsTSB also offer an e-banking option which is exactly the same as all other accounts except electronic payments (debit cards, e-pay etc) are free, paying in cheques however still costs (and a little more IIRC). It’s a good account to have if you’re web savy and can do the majority of your banking online.

If you anticipate needing an overdraft facility in a year, go to the bank when the accounts look healthy and explain your plan. Much better to negotiate from a position of strength than accept the defaults because you are desperate for cash.

Sean Ronan

Good point, the banks love you when you’re doing well however expect to be charged for your overdraft –many banks now charge a (reoccurring) annual charge of £50-100 for your overdraft facility, it may be a better (and cheaper) option to loan the business from your credit card if needed –taking advantage of the 0% period etc.

New Business

Call me a sceptic if you like but once
you’ve been in business for a while there are two common elements to pretty
much every new client:

Every client’s idea is going to be the next big thing (in their eyes anyway).

Every client has so many contacts that they’ll generate you more business than you can possibly handle

Both statements are usually used to
encourage you to give them a bigger discount or agree to some form of
partnership. I’m not saying you should immediately dismiss what they’re saying,
the best business comes off personal referral from a past client but instead
take it with a pinch of salt.

Don’t feel that you need to agree to any
partnership etc on the spot, go home, have a drink and then weigh up whether
you feel what they’re saying can be backed by what you see or whether it’s
likely to be a load of baloney. You really should look at every client as a
long term relationship rather than a one-off squeeze.

While on the subject of investment
partnerships with clients I think in the right situation they are a superb
idea. Since setting up The Site Doctor we’ve setup a number of investment
partnerships with our clients which have in some cases been very profitable,
others not so. The trick is to form your own opinion, if the client suggests
you do all your work for free and they’ll invest their time, ask yourself why
they don’t have faith in their own idea to invest any capital. Sometimes they
don’t have the capital ready and it’s a great idea, sometimes the investments
can be quantified equally through doing this just don’t let them talk you into
something your gut says is wrong.

What I tend to suggest in the case that
they can’t raise the full amount for your services is suggest a part share,
part capital payment but again you must decide how much the shares are worth.
It does take a little time to investigate someone else’s proposed business but
you’ll be kicking yourself if you don’t!

Once you decided whether or not to invest
your time and you’ve negotiated the best deal you possibly can make sure you
get it down in writing. This is very important and we’ve been caught out with
this in the past. We had a client who suggested a 15% turnover share for the
first year to cover 50% of the development costs. We negotiated over email and
had the agreement written down, where we were caught out however was with a
misunderstanding on our behalf –we assumed that we would get 12 monthly
commission payments but what wasn’t clarified was the client offered the first
month of subscription free –so straight away we were down to 11 months. Then
thanks to WorldPay, the first payment wasn’t received
until 2 months after the customer paid which meant we only received 10 months of
payments –luckily we’ve got good relations with the client and it was resolved
amicably.

So if you’re going to go into an investment
like this, make sure all the cards are on the table otherwise you may not be as
lucky as we were! Before finishing this point, I personally wouldn’t agree to a
profit share on the investment without having a breakdown of all the expenses
otherwise an unscrupulous client may over-inflate the expenses and so reduce
your share.

Approach a client with some form of prototype rather then I can do this, I can do that. Show them some form of prototype, lure them in and then nail them and start milking money. I know it sounds ruthless but business is ruthless. When I meant nail them and start milking money... I meant "Customer satisfaction should be your motto" and recurring revenue is today's gold then tomorrow fortune.

Sunny

Having a portfolio is a great start, depending on your industry this may not be possible.
If you’re starting out and have no portfolio (and have time) then why not
generate a few mock-ups of your work, don’t spend too long generating them and
they don’t need to be perfect working examples but people do tend to respond
better to something they can touch/see.

Networking

You don't actually need a website to win most SME web project business if you network right - which is very very sad. I really must get my act together - it has been 3 years now. It does prevent me from winning the 20k+ deals though!

Sean Ronan

The classic phrase of “it’s not what you
know –it’s who you know that matters” couldn’t be truer. When I setup The Site Doctor I was lucky to have some excellent contracts through a good friend
Vladimir Srdanovic, though previously a developer he felt that he no-longer
wished to develop but instead just generate new business. I was keen and ready
to develop on a mass scale so teaming up made sense.

If you’re not lucky enough to have someone
like Vlad within your midst already then networking
is an ideal way to generate new business and as you grow will become
invaluable, whatever hang-ups you may have (age, gender etc) don’t let them
come into the equation.

Your local Chamber of Commerce will most
likely host events, the fee depends on your local Chamber of Commerce, but the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce for example charges an annual fee, after which
the majority of events are free to attend. We were a member of Birmingham
Chamber of Commerce for a couple of years however last year we opted out
because of the mentality within our local chamber. On reflection I would
probably opt to try more dedicated events such as those run by dedicated
networking companies but be prepared to pay through the nose.

Don’t forget that networking isn’t just
about making useful contacts to sell to, it’s also a chance for you to meet
your competition and other people involved in your industry. I’ve been meaning
to find time to setup a new media type networking group up in the
Midlands for a while but I believe the Multipack [http://www.multipack.co.uk/] does
pretty much the same thing as I was proposing.

Meeting your competition and others
involved in your industry is also useful because they may be able to throw you
work that they’re not able to undertake for themselves, for instance you’ll
find many design agencies have a mutual agreement with a development company in
place by which they pass web development work to their partner and vice-versa.

It’s also worth noting that networking is
no-longer just a face-face meeting event thanks to online networking sites such
as SoFlow and LinkedIn to
mention a couple, getting involved in these online communities may not generate
any business directly but will again give you the opportunity to promote your
business.

As time goes by, you’ll be surprised where
your business will come from –always be pleasant to people and whenever
possible have time for people as they’re bound to thank you in one way or another
later. It’s always worth thinking long-term with any new contact, they may not
contact you straight away but get in touch from time to time and you never know
what may come of it.

When you’re at a networking event –in fact anytime you could bump into a potential client make sure you have plenty of business cards available with you. The best thing you can do to save fumbling through every pocket trying to find a card is to have 5-10 cards in each pocket (yes EVERY pocket!). That way no matter which hand you reach with you’ll quickly find a card. For those times you’re not expecting, keep a few cards in your wallet too or perhaps attached to the back of your phone* -basically with anything you take with you everywhere. Keep the supply refreshed too, I’ve been caught out before and you may just miss a great opportunity!

*I’ve not tried this but it’s a thought!

“Keep your hands free” -that was something I was told by a networking advisor and has always stuck with me and it makes sense, they always have a lot of free food/drink at these networking events so avoid the rookie mistake of piling a plate high of food and taking a glass of wine in the other hand –how will shake hands on introduction? Have a small plate of food and/or a glass of wine* –it keeps at least one hand free to shake hands with or hand out business cards!

*Some events shell out on fancy clips that hold the glass on the side of your plate but don’t get me started on those! Just don’t try is the best advice I can offer there ;)

Find complementary companies you can work with and cross-sell your services. e.g. Hennie has a support business but no developers, perhaps some of his clients need dev work (in turn some of your clients may need support services).

Fantastic tip! This is something that we do
but haven’t pushed a great deal –a while ago, The Site Doctor teamed up with a Bristol based Mobile Development company called Mobile Pie, I grew up with one
of the owners Richard Wilson while at school and felt that his services
complimented ours. By teaming up we’re able to offer a broader set of skills
without taking on additional cost. By reselling their services you can also
start making money without needing to do all the work.

Along the same lines, if you’re going into web development, identify and be-friend good/great design companies, if you’re
able to get 2 or 3 design companies on your side then you’ll probably find
they’ll bring enough work to keep you busy all year around.

Meetings

You’ll find your own style of meeting once you’ve had a few meetings with your new clients and the format of these meetings will obviously depend on your business sector but here are a few (some obvious) tips to having a successful meeting.

Before the meeting

When arranging the meeting or at least before the meeting contact the client and ask them whether there is anything specific they would like to discuss.

Prepare! It’s probably best to think of a meeting a little like a job interview, before your meeting do your research into the company.

The day before

Get everything together the day before your meeting, if needs be have a list of all the items you need to take with you and tick each one off. At the least I would get together:

A pen and pad of paper (make sure there’s ink in your pen!)

Contact details of the client –I would write these on paper rather than just relying on your mobile

Directions to the client

Any supporting documentation for the meeting

Whatever you plan to wear. Deciding what you’re going to wear the night before the meeting saves time on the day and ensures that you’re not left needing to iron your shirt 10 minutes after you should have left…

What should you wear?

What to wear comes down to your personal feelings and what you feel is appropriate for the client. When I first set out I would wear a suit to every meeting as I felt it was what was expected of me –I expect this came partly from the fact that I went to a public school but also from the image I had portrayed in my mind but choosing what to wear isn’t always that cut-and-dry.
More recently I’ve been going to meetings more casually dressed, this is carefully judged however from my research of the company before the meeting (or after the initial meeting) but I’ve found that when dealing with SMEs –especially when you’re dealing with the founder of the business people seem to respond better. Wearing smart casual clothes also portrays the image that you’re comfortable with yourself and confident in what you’re doing.
Steve told me an interesting story about one of his friends who runs a very successful industrial heating and air conditioning company. This guy has a phenomenal turnover (his average contract is into 6 figures) but said that he soon realised he got most of his business when he turned up in a dirty boiler suit. His theory is that his clients feel that he as the MD is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and muck in.
That’s not to say however that there’s no place for the suit! I still wear a suit to corporate clients as it’s what’s expected, I love wearing a suit I’m just saying wear whatever you feels right for the client and industry.

On the day

Be yourself, what you wear is crucial to this, if you don’t like wearing a suit or jeans then don’t. Getting a new client is all about being able to bond with the client, feel comfortable in yourself (and not putting on a front) and you’ll find it a lot easier to find some common ground. You’ll also find that people can see through you if you’re putting on an act, if this is your first meeting, that’s not a very good way of building your trust!

Get there early. 10 minutes early is sufficient, if you get there earlier, wait in the car or around the corner but whatever you do, don’t be late. Yes you could argue that it’s because you’re so busy, but I feel it shows that you don’t care about the client more! If you’re going to be late due to i.e. the traffic, call the client and let them know 30 minutes – an hour before hand (with mobile phones you don’t have an excuse now!)

Have fresh breath –nobody likes talking to someone with smelly breath and if you’re up against a couple of competitor companies you certainly want to be remembered but not as the “guy with the bad breath”. Keep some chewing gum, mints or even mouth wash in your car or laptop bag

“To Tea or not To Tea” that is the question! I’ve found this can really disrupt a meeting if it’s a one-man-band. When the client asks if you’d like a drink, best respond something along the lines of “only if you’re having one” –if they walk in with a fresh brew you don’t want them to waste 10 minutes of your scheduled time making you a drink when you could be selling!

Make notes. When you get into the meeting, open your notepad to a fresh page, head it up (client name, date, attendees etc) and leave it open with the pen/pencil ready to use. Pay attention to the client, remember what you can but if there’s something you feel is important write it down –all to often I’ve got out of a meeting, intending to make a note of something I’ve forgotten! Don’t make the same mistake. Make notes about the little things, names of the client’s family, birthdays etc as it will allow you to personalise future correspondence.

Listen to what the client is saying. I can’t stress this enough, showing an interest in what they’re saying is important as the client is bound to give you lots of useful information –not necessarily about the job in hand but perhaps information you can use to your advantage later i.e. knowing they don’t like Whiskey would come in useful when sending them a gift.

Don’t invite distractions to the meeting. I’ve decided against taking a laptop into meetings these days because they make the meeting very disjointed and it’s often unneeded –especially in the initial client meetings, opening your laptop screen between you and the client is like erecting a large wall between you! Make sure your phone/BlackBerry/PDA is turned off and any.

Thanks to Mike A: Try to avoid talking business for the first 10-15 minutes of the meeting, use this time to talk about anything else possible. Look around the room and pickup on anything you can use as a talking point –perhaps it’s an example of their product or a family photo.

After the meeting

Whether you consider it successful or not make contact with the client after your meeting thanking them for their time and remind them of any information they’re meant to send you and/or any tasks you’ll be doing for them.

Client and Supplier Relations

Try and build long term relationships with customers. Although a developer, I also run a small company and use contractors time to time as can't do it all in-house, and I really am bothered about technical design and scalability etc but perhaps that’s my dev background coming thru.

Personally I think having good relations with all your clients is incredibly important. As I’ve said several times in this series of articles already, the best business comes from referrals, never underestimate the value of a good word. It really must speak volumes when a potential client contacts you and you’re able to say “look through our portfolio and feel free to contact any of the clients listed for a reference”.

Having excellent client relations isn’t really hard, give them an shining service, keep it personal, be open and honest and keep in contact after they’ve paid, I don’t mean call them up and talk for hours everyday but drop them an email or a call once in a while asking if there’s anything you can do to help them and if you supplied a service or good to them such as a website ask whether it’s still meeting their needs. Making this little effort can often land you more work as there are numerous times I’ve contacted a client to say hi and they’ve said “Oh hi Tim, I’ve been meaning to call you about xyz for a while”… Remember that your clients are no-doubt just as busy as you so make it easy for them to contact you.

The theory behind excellent client relations is that a happy client who has received an excellent service will come back -and- refer you to other clients. An unhappy client however who feels they have had a poor service will not only not give you their next piece of work, but they will tell a number of other people about the bad service they received. Someone once told me that 8 happy clients may refer you to one other client by one unhappy client will let 8 other potential clients know!

If you’ve had a good service, let them know. All to often people are quick to criticise and point out the faults with any given situation so thanking someone for a good service is a real breath of fresh air, it can really lift someone and make them feel that all the hard work and effort that they have put into the product and/or service given to you has been worth it. Remember that even if they’re a supplier, they may very well need your services later down the line and taking a little effort to thank them will go along way!

Be a professional and don't give excuses. If you think the project won't be completed by a given date, then warn them about it earlier rather then later. Be honest about any technical issues and how you intend to solve it.

Sunny

Absolutely, I feel karma has a lot to
answer for in business. At the end of the day, you’re the boss, if you’re seen
to be open and honest with people, they’re more likely to respond well, as your
parents have probably always said, honesty is the best
policy. If you’ve got a technical issue you may find they have a solution to it
that means less work for you. If you call them to confess to some service
downtime before one of their clients tells them, that’s got to be a good thing!

Christmas Cards/Gifts

I like sending out cards and I think
excellent client relations are very important but every Christmas I hit the
same question “What should I do this year?” Each year it generally ends up with
me doing nothing but this year I actually got my act together and sent out a
couple of gifts which seemed to go down well.

Steve, my father-in-law has a client that
makes luxury hampers and he recommended I contact them to see if they could
help as the hampers were pretty darn impressive, he was right. The issue I
quickly realised was however, who should I send them to? Some of our clients
only bring in £20-30pa which didn’t really justify a £20 hamper. This year I
had already decided which clients I should send to, but while doing my books I
noticed a couple of other clients that I would have liked to send them to so
in-line with my current business reforms we came up with a system of grading
clients which I think will work well for next year.

It’s quite simple really, work out the
turnover and profit generated by each client/contact you have and grade each
one. For instance, you could spend £10 for every £1000 of business the
client/contact brings. I wouldn’t stick strictly to this however as you may
have some lower profit clients who you enjoy working with –don’t be stingy,
it’s Christmas!

Then you have the issue of deciding what
gifts you would like to send out, the first year I was going to send out a few
bottles but a friend said that it was tacky, over-done and thoughtless (especially in the
city) so I didn’t bother. Try and make it relevant to your
company and different i.e.
Cocoa Creative [www.cocoacreative.co.uk] this year sent us a bar of chocolate wrapped in pink
paper, I thought that was cool, Stacey thought it was tasty. Either way it got
them a mention here which clearly means I’m thinking about them…

A word of caution: before sending out extravagant gifts to your client it is advised that you check any restrictions that may be in place on the total value of gifts allowed. I say this because there is a limit imposed on the value of any single item for doctors -at one point drug reps were giving away holidays for doctors to use their product over another so it may also apply to other industries as well.

I keep referring to clients and contacts
here because I would thank anyone that generates your business more work, it’s
a great situation to be in if you’ve got several mini-sales people!

Day-day running

Friday, February 02, 2007 8:54:07 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Day-day running

Evaluating when it’s best to do something
in-house and when to outsource it is invaluable -especially in the case of a
developer, the temptation to develop all your internal applications is great.
Sometimes it’s better to outlay £500 rather than spending many hours not
getting paid by clients.

Assuming you will have a website, create a secure section that has at least a Corporate Risks & Issues Log, so that all authorised staff can be made aware of the ongoing position of the company.

Duncan C. Ion

If you’re starting up with more than one
person, having some form of blog is a useful method of conveying this
information as it means people can easily subscribe to the RSS feeds and keep
up-to-date with the latest information with minimum effort. If you use blog
software such as DasBlog [www.dasblog.net] you are also able to have
different authors on one portal.

While on the subject of blogs,
I would recommend setting up a company blog, or at least a personal blog with
plenty of references to your main website. These back links will increase your
visibility and hence ranking on Google but it will also increase your company’s
profile.

Processes and procedures

Write down the internal processes you need to carry out in order to provide the deliverables. This includes a definition of your development & PM method as well as your sales process. Ensure that you have a set of terms & conditions that form part of your contract with your client base. This should relate to the PM method, defined deliverables and the payment for these – so typically, you might produce design documents for the solution, [get paid], develop & deliver for user testing [get paid] then a final payment on user acceptance. Be clear about the clients’ payment profile. I have clients who pay in 5 days, others who pay in 60 days.

Duncan C. Ion

Depending on your background, you may not
be too interested in the management side of business but it is very important
to have a number of management processes in place, you won’t necessarily be
able to set these up before you start but as you learn your business, get them
in place ASAP.

What sort of processes am I referring to?

Have a client sign an agreement that
outlines the responsibilities of both parties (what you’re going to do for them
and what they’re going to do in return –e.g. pay) before you start work for them. Make sure you’re as clear as
possible so you can charge for additional services without the client
quarrelling with you.

Depending on the size of the company have
the client provide you with a purchase order number. It’s best you ask whatever size the company is as it portrays the image that you’re
dealing with larger organisations but the worst they can do is ask you what you
mean. A purchase order number is basically a reference in the clients purchase
database letting their accounting department know your invoice is on the way
in. In many situations it also speeds up payment. When dealing with larger
invoices it’s a must because it’s the loosest form of guarantee the person
you’re dealing with has informed their accounts department and had the amount
authorised.

After you’ve had a meeting with a client follow it up a few days later with an email/phone call thanking them for their time, make it relevant to the meeting if you can and word it so it requires some form of response from the client. Making this post-meeting contact can be the difference between getting the work and not –in the same way making contact with a recruiting company after your interview thanking them for their time can make the final decision sway your way.

Have a dedicated admin day. Initially this
can be something you do once a month but as your business grows you’ll most
likely need to increase this to once a week, as outlined in my previous blog
post about setting your rates [Pricing your work] you’ll probably find
around two days a week are taken up with adminy type
work. People are forever moaning about how boring doing a years accounts is
however, if you do break it down to say 2-3hours a week it’s a lot easier It’s
important to remain strict with yourself as there’s always something more interesting
available ;).

Invoice regularly! Sounds
obvious but it’s important. Depending on your business model, I would
recommend setting a day aside every month which is solely for invoicing. I’m
not just talking about sending out invoicing, I also mean chasing invoices as
you’re bound to have plenty of clients who will delay paying until you really
bug them!

Log payments and receipts –this should be
part of your admin day but it’s worth mentioning again. If you log all your
receipts and any payments on a weekly basis it should dramatically save that
end of year rush trying to find all your receipts for the accountant, if you do
it really well it should also save you a few quid!

Team structure

You've got to have someone who is (or can be) a suit rather than a geek (I'm generalising a bit) - the dev side is "easy" the problem is finding clients, selling to them and getting them to pay the invoices (for that matter, for developers, there's often an issue getting to the point where you do invoice them).

James Murphy

As stated earlier, you need to clearly identify how the final decisions are made. Make sure everybody understands these rules. Write them down [Articles of Association]. Define team roles and responsibilities. You need, at the very least, Sales person(s), Project Manager(s), Developers. Some or all of you can take on some or all roles. Be clear about personal capabilities.

Duncan C. Ion

Having someone who’s able to carefully put
people in their place and ensure the company is moving in the right direction
is important, it’s even more important when friendships are involved. If one of
you can’t cut the niceties and point out the obvious you’re more likely to fail
from the start.

Having someone who is presentable and can
communicate well is intrinsic to getting new business, everyone operates
differently but if your new client can’t relate to your representative you’re
unlikely to retain them for very long. As James said, if you can’t at the same
time tell them to cough up, you’ll probably find yourself with a very low cash
flow very quickly.

The hardest thing you’ll face (if you’re
anything like me that is) is loosening that tight grip you’ve got on your
business. It’s taken me 3 years but I’m finally allowing Stacey to take over
some of the admin work for The Site Doctor in an effort to lighten my work-load
(admittedly I should be blogging less too but hey). Accepting that other people
work in different ways is a surprisingly hard thing to accept when it’s your
own business. I’ve already accepted that if I want my business to grow, I’ll
have to put up with someone else’s coding style until we’ve found common
ground.

One final point I’ll make here though is
(again depending on your business model) you will need to get employees at some point so make some form of
provision for them. If you don’t get an employee and try to do all the work
yourself forever your business is capped and you’ll more than likely burn out.
Someone once told me the perfect business is one that can easily be converted
into a franchise.

Business Management

When it comes to business work with your head and not your heart (I'm not saying...be cruel. I'm saying be smart about your business). He mentioned this for techies. A Client/Business is not worried how innovative coding you do, how fantastic n-tier architecture you have, all the latest technologies you use. All he is interested in, is finishing the project as quick as possible so they could earn loads of money. Remember, clients always want the project yesterday. The quicker you can turn around things, the quicker you can earn money. That doesn't mean you gotta rush and give them total pile of crap. The real keyword is "Don't over do or don't get carried away with technologies".

Sunny

Lots of people will give you advice, you can go on many business courses, and read many books, but bottom line is it's your money and livelihood. You are the "pig", the others the chicken (see http://scrumforteamsystem.com/ProcessGuidance/Roles/Roles.html) so if a decision needs to be made, take enough advice, sleep on it then go with your gut instinct. If you get it wrong, learn from the experience and move on. (This strategy once cost me £10k directly but I have made much more from the good decisions over the years, and I won't make that £10k baddun again!)

Well put, you need to be able to fall off
your bike and get back on again so to speak, you will make mistakes and if you don’t I doubt you’re taking enough
risks and so will just end up ticking over, there’s nothing wrong with making
mistakes as long as you can learn from them and move on. Listen to your gut
instinct and as soon as it turns sour pull out!

Taking an all -or- nothing approach to
things, giving it everything you can/need to until the point that your instinct
says enough and then cut it off straight away is important.

Specific advise, be careful about discussing new projects, I once tried to raise venture capital, and found the venture capital guys I went to ask for funding, set up the idea themselves a year and a half later. So just because they've got a suit and fancy office don’t trust them and if you're looking at any new projects cover your IP well.

Be careful, but don’t let your project or
company suffer as a result of being prudent. If you’re going to talk to someone
that’s in the position to do what you’re proposing (i.e. they have the skills
or can buy them) at the very least have them sign an non-disclosure
agreement to give you a little backup. If you’re really worried, prepare your
material so it gives them the minimum amount of information required for their
input and explain your reasons for doing so.

Either way, if you ever discuss a project
with someone else (even internal employees) there’s a chance it’ll get stolen.
The best advice here is learn from it and move on. If
you want to pursue the matter in the courts weigh up whether it will be at the
cost of the detriment of your company and/or image.

When I first set out, I had to take a
client to court and cutting a long story short settled out of court because I
calculated the rest of the time I would spend preparing for court would cost me
more than I would be awarded. It’s also worth noting that if the amount is
below a threshold (IIRC £5000) you can go through the Small Claims courts which
saves you a lot of expense and agro.

Action pack or Empower

Easy, action pack you can have more or less forever 'til ms changes its mind and includes SBS Premium which is handy - if you're a multi person business based on MS products its more or less a no brainer (you get 10 licenses for Office for a start).

The empower stuff is rather different - you have to be looking to produce a product and it only lasts two years max (from memory) - of course its a full (or damn near) MSDN sub so its highly desirable as a pro sub is £800 every two years and has nowhere near as many goodies (though most come with the action pack as above).

Equally DO spend the money on things you need - dev hardware, licenses for tools a decent server and printer. I worry about telephony too (this is something we're struggling with because we keep putting off solving it properly...)

James Murphy

Well - I'd say empower leading to certified (and maybe gold partner) - many benefits, great value. Empower requires you to sell an off-the-shelf package from your site within-two years, so can't be a bespoke web app, but you could probably write some small game/utility and sell that from your site to qualify...They don't vet the app at all AFAIK, it just needs to have been "announced"

We have had good success with this route (though we do have a real product), and are currently experiencing some good leads from MS as a result, and have some good relationships that are starting to bring real value to the business.

So I guess it's whether you just want a quick way to cheap licenses or want to build a partner relationship with MS.

Working from home

Thursday, February 01, 2007 8:52:38 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

When you set out, cutting costs is crucial to your long-term success so working from home is an ideal solution, but is it really a good idea? What will happen when a client wants to meet? Will I ever be able to leave work?

Your working environment

Firstly, make sure your office space is as dedicated an office space as possible, I know it’s difficult to spare the space when you live in a 1bed apartment but at least have a desk that allows you to fold away your papers safely. This is doubly as important if you’ve got kids or a loved one as that will take away the opportunity for them to “accidentally” spill a mug of coffee over your latest proposal.

If at all possible, dedicate an entire room –or even a floor if you can spare it to the business, there are a couple of reasons for this, the first is that you’ll be able to rent it to the business and then offset that expense on your tax return, another and I feel more important reason is that you’re able to get into another frame of mind when entering that space. I have an office at the rear of our property which is completely separated from the house with the exception of a small tea hatch. I’ve always felt that this has allowed me to semi-detach* work from home even though they’re within the same boundaries. Where at all possible I avoid mixing the two to re-enforce the segmentation.

*You’ll never really be able to detach from your business –it’s part and parcel of running your own business I’m afraid.

Depending on your personal mentality, having some form of dress code can also help you segment home from work, if you’ve already got a suit from a previous role, why not wear that while at work, then when you get home in the evening change into your home clothes. This may seem wacky but you’re not doing it for others, more so you can mentally detach from work. At the end of the day, you’re working from home so you can wear what you like and the likelihood is no-one will know*.

*I was told an “interesting” fact the other day, apparently it’s been estimated that somewhere in the region of 30% of home-workers work naked. It’s a disturbing thought –especially when you’re on the phone to someone you know works alone. Luckily I can reassure you that I’m not in that 30%. Yet.

Have a routine

Have a routine –this is very important, in the same way you would if you were working for someone else, make sure you’re in work for a given time and stick to it. Luckily, my better half Stacey has a full-time job which means she is up at 0630 every day for work as it is, I’ve forced myself to get up with her and get into the office ASAP which has worked well. It doesn’t matter whether your routine is 0900-1700 or 1700-0900, as long as you stick to it you’ll avoid countless duvet days –remember, when you’re not working, the likelihood is you’re not earning*!

*Again, this depends on your business model!

It is also worth setting yourself a finish time as part of your routine, you’re likely to work over a lot of the time but actually having a time to stop and get your coat gives you a deadline to work towards. There is a great article from Ryan Carson on A List Apart about working 4 days a week [The Four-Day Week Challenge], I think it’s a great idea and one that really is achievable but I agree with him, it's worth accepting that there'll never be enough time to finish everything.

Being the only person in the office I didn’t overly want to leave the office to itself and not having anyone to spend that extra day with (Stacey’s at work), I’ve chosen to make this change in stages. At the moment I’m following Google’s example of 20% time. 20% time is something that Larry and Page adopted from academia but in short, everyone is allowed to dedicate 20% of their working week to something that isn’t part of their day-job. This may be something they’re interested in developing for personal reasons or just an idea that you could profit from.

I’ve found this to be very beneficial to my working week especially when I’m in the middle of a large project, it gives you a little breathing space which in the past has allowed me to work out issues that had me banging my head against the wall. It also makes the weekend feel longer so you can relax more and prepare for the week ahead.

I like this 20% time concept (or as I call it “Fun Fridays”) not only because I'm able to step back from any on-going projects and relax a little more during the weekend (even when working on the weekends) but also because of where it takes me. For instance, a couple of Fridays ago I came up with the idea of writing a “Suggestion Box” -a simple Web User Control that can be added to any future project, it allows the user of the site (usually an admin user I would think) to suggest additions/alterations to the application. The suggestions are then stored in a central database for me to review later. The users can also rate other suggestions (using a little AJAX rating system ;)) so the managers are able to see the most popular ideas and gauge which are worth adding to the system. The plan is to review the (user) based suggestions with the management on a regular basis (even if it's just over email) and generate more work that we wouldn't have otherwise had. Although I identified the idea during the normal working week, had I not had “Fun Fridays” it would still just be an idea.

Having a routine for starting and finishing your day will allow your mind to be in the right frameset and again add another level of segmentation of home and work life. Being able to turn off at a given time and feel that you’re able to relax in the evening is very important.

Won't my clients mind?

In a word: No. I wouldn’t worry too much on having clients come to your house for meetings as depending on your business, I expect you’ll find that the majority of your client face to face meetings will be on site but for those that aren’t, why not check out the local hotels, pubs and coffee houses for a suitable meeting place. Find a couple of options and check them out at various times of the day and week so you know what to expect. Are they quiet? Are the tables big enough? Does it portray the right image for my company?

Many local hotels now offer conference and meeting rooms that include facilities like internet access, tea/coffee and other amenities but they’re at a cost. Alternatively your local Chamber of Commerce is likely to offer the same forms of facility if needed.

Asides from the work/home segmentation, one downside to working from home is that you will get rather cut off from the outside world. This is fine if you have the need for many client meetings or on-site consultancies but can be tough if not. You can easily remedy this by finding your local coffee shop, gym or pub and take a little time each day/week to get out of the office.

There is a new form of business establishing itself at the moment which offers dedicated office space on a monthly retainer so if you choose to work from home for the majority of the month but would still like to retain a little face-to-face contact with the outside world you could check out the serviced offices. Another advantage of having these offices will also mean you meet other businesses.

Telephony

If you're going to be working from home in the short-term think about getting a business phone number (not your home number) on the cheap. An idea is to create a business Skype account that you all share. Get a Skype in number and then you have a portable number (you can also get international Skype in numbers which will make it cheaper for people to call you from abroad if you are not restricting yourself to the UK).

I divert my local number permanently to a 0800 number at moneypenny and pay about £100 per month for a team of very polite ladies to answer all my calls as Active Pixels. I tell moneypenny about the current virtual team, and if a call comes in they route it to the right person (usually working from home) checking first to see if call can be accepted. Non urgent calls to return arrive as an email. Out of hours voicemails arrive as a wav file.

Many clients have commented about the professionalism of the 'girl who answers the phone' and it does create a good impression.

It means that I can go on a long holiday knowing that the phone will always be answered and either routed to my holiday cover or informed that I'll ring back next week.

Sean Ronan

I’ve been working out of an office at the back of the house for 3 years now and it’s the same telephone line, friends and family know this so when they call and I don’t answer, the “Welcome to The Site Doctor” answer machine message doesn’t worry them. I’ve not had any issues with this, the only thing I would recommend is you have Caller Id added and if you can’t remember telephone numbers get a phone/display that has a memory for you, that way you can easily ignore business calls out of hours if you so wish.

Remember that when starting out, it’s important to keep costs as low as possible and although having dedicated office lines is nice, it can also be expensive. Skype is a cheap VOIP solution however I’ve had issues with it’s reliability for Skype-Skype calls in the past so can’t personally recommend it.

Business Plan

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 8:51:29 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

These can be as complex or simple as you see fit. Please remember that no matter what size of business you are ior intend to be – Cashflow is King [I had an article with that headline framed in my office for 15 years, when I was MD of a mid-sized software house].

Duncan C. Ion

At the very least I would recommend it’s worth writing a SWOT analysis, this will give you focus and allow you to visualise your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats more clearly and perhaps spot something that’ll be crucial to your success or failure. Depending on how fast paced your industry is, it’s always worth re-evaluating the SWOT analysis every now and again.

Once you’ve written your SWOT analysis, show your friends, family and colleagues and see if they can add to it at all. Don’t worry if they criticise it, if you can’t justify or argue your point, perhaps it needs a little more thought.

Think about income not outgoings. Don't spend anything you don't need to. No fancy offices, coffee machines, cars etc. There's no glory in spending money on office equipment. Think big on income and about how your income scales (e.g. if you're a consultancy and you want to double your income you generally have to double your staff).

Jos Vernon

The start-up costs start to build up. Weigh up getting a subscription for software against using either Microsoft's express tools or even OS alternatives. Could that money go against other things that would help your business more in the short term (you can always get the subscription at a later date when you have more money coming in).

Defiantly, when setting out less is more. It’s easy to setup i.e. a web development business for only a few hundred pounds but by having lower overheads, it will mean as you earn off your first few jobs, you’ll have more to invest in the company.

What benefit is there to your company if you go out and get the best PC, the biggest office with a couple of secretaries and some flash car? In reality you’re more likely to struggle as you’ll be setting off on the back foot. Make sure you carefully weigh up any purchases, perhaps by categorising them into i.e.:

Need

Would improve work capacity

Would like, could perhaps improve work capacity

Would like but wouldn’t improve work capacity

Don’t need but look, it’s cool!

If you’ve got investment for the company and can afford to buy all the cool kit from the offset, great but it may be a better idea to keep that for a rainy day. Although I’ve got no proof I’ve always felt that had I not had to earn every penny we had to spend as a business I would have been far more complacent and so lazy and the business wouldn’t be where it is today. Along the same line of thought, I sometimes wonder if I could have done anything differently/better if I did have money to invest at the start and whether it would have got The Site Doctor any further.

And more, discover your minimum required turnover from the beginning. Review it every three months so you are always aware. For example, an experienced three man team will likely require a turnover target of £130k in the first year to take care of wages, tax, NIC, rent, services and equipment. That equates to 13 x £10k projects - no mean feat at the beginning!

Mike A

This is a very good point, it would be worth noting this down in your targets and goals list [Targets and Goals] as it will give you something to focus on. Think of all expenditures on an annual basis, then when you have the annual expenditure you can work it out on a average number of jobs and/or a monthly figure making it feel more achievable.

Targets and Goals

Have a vision - doesn't need details, just picture in your mind where you want to be (personally and professionally). Keep that in mind and you'll find ways of working towards it

Do the ‘Vision’ thing. Sounds corny, but you must have a defined goal, or you may wander off track. Try to make the vision statement business orientated, not technology based. If you can identify a Unique Selling Point, all the better. If not, work on quality and clarity of process, not price.

Duncan C. Ion

There's a sound psychological basis for this (ever heard the adage about mixing with people you want to be like?). It sounds like fluff but get a clearly defined statement of what you intend doing, frame it, and place it where everyone will see it most of the time. Couch your meetings in terms of whether the result conforms to your intention. You will have lots of opportunities that are not really opportunities at all - the method described will keep you on track.

Mike A

Personally I can't stress how important targets are enough. Have a set of personal targets as well as business goals -NOT "Make loads of money". The targets should be SMART* (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely), write your targets and goals down somewhere as it commits you, you don't need to read them again just as long as they're there.

Tick them off as you go and add more as needed, they'll give you focus and drive. I would recommend having a selection of goals including something that would appear to be unrealistic as it will give you something to really strive for. It's also worth telling other people about your goals as in an odd way, it commits you to the goals.

Also, read up on the Chinese concept of "Guanxi". We loosely interpret that as networking in the West but Guanxi is far more powerful. This list is a form of Guanxi.

At the end of the day, a business plan should enable you to visualise your goals as a business which in turn will allow you to focus your efforts. Don’t panic about not achieving everything at once, prioritise and attack one thing at a time.

I agree and this is something that I’ve only come to appreciate relatively recently. When setting out I decided that the first few jobs would be relatively in-expensive to build on our portfolio, this was a real Catch-22 as I felt compelled to deliver amazing results for next to no reward. This temptation is great when you start out. You end up becoming a busy fool, working all the hours given for little financial reward (which limits potential investment in your company). You end up begrudging your clients and if you were to let it continue I would imagine start offering a lower service, or worse decide that running your own company wasn’t a good idea.

We recently re-jigged our pricing structure while analysing where I felt the business could do better and the only difference it has made is to my happiness, I feel far more rewarded for the work I produce. Interestingly the quantity of work being obtained has also increased somewhat dramatically so don’t think that your price will always sway the decision –a lot of the time it’s more about whether the client responds well to you.

It’s also worth pointing out that higher (not extortionate) rates, aren’t always a bad thing, I’ve lost out on pitches before because we’ve been too cheap and the client has opted for a more costly company, this isn’t always the case but oddly being more expensive often suggests you’re better.

Find a niche market with the smallest amount of competition. For example, one of my areas is in identifying website publishers, forming a complete trace and evidence file, then either closing them down, making them amend or dealing with international authorities including Police and courts (so if anyone needs assistance!!!). A looser one is accessibility based SEO. You don't need to cut price in niche markets - on the contrary, income can be higher and continuing.

Mike A

Finding a niche isn’t always something you can do when you first set out as until you’re within a market you may not know the market well enough. If you do find a niche however, make sure you run a SWOT analysis on it first, it may not be that no-one else has noticed it, it may just be that others have tried and failed –that’s not to say that you can’t make it work however!

One of the main drivers for running your own business is a sense of ‘being in charge of your own destiny’. I started out in 1982 and have never regretted that. Be aware that as you grow the business you also become responsible for others – It’s just a question of stepping up to the challenge!

Duncan C. Ion

It’s defiantly one of the best things you’ll ever do –I would imagine this still counts even if it goes terribly wrong. I was once told that once you’ve been self-employed you’re effectively unemployable ever again and after having been self-employed for 3 years now I can see what they were getting at. I don’t think it’s so much from an employer’s POV but an employee’s, I would find it very hard to give up the freedom/control myself and so will do almost anything to avoid it!

I think this is a nice place to close this article, so in closing I’ll say that even if it fails you won’t regret trying, it’ll most likely be one of the hardest but also most rewarding and filling things that you’ll ever do. The worst thing you can do is not try and end up forever wondering what if…